Law, crime and regulation

Campaigners against the sale of 24 items of Chinese ceramics from Croydon council’s Riesco Collection were in a race against time to raise money for their judicial review.

The French art world has welcomed their government’s decision to cut, rather than increase, the rate on tax for works imported in to France from outside the EU.

ATG’s sister operation, online auction platform the-saleroom.com, has gone some way to solving the problem of alerting auctioneers to rogue bidders under the Data Protection Act.

Another Henry Moore sculpture has been taken in the latest in a spate of thefts targeting works by the artist.

Auctioneer John Nicholson has called for a review of data protection rules when it comes to alerting salerooms to serial non-payers and problem bidders.

Martin Roberts, the UK specialist who worked as a consultant on the Punta Cana site, discusses the importance of the Pewter Wreck.

Officers carrying out a fraud investigation at Stuart Porter Antiques in Stamford are asking any small dealers who rented space at the premises to contact them.

A Nobel Peace Prize medal stolen from the Lord Mayor’s Mansion House in Newcastle is still missing despite a 21-year-old man being jailed for the theft.

Three fraudsters have been sentenced for a widespread scam using dud cheques at antiques fairs across the country.

The Jane Austen’s House Museum at Chawton in Hampshire has raised the £150,000 needed to keep a gold turquoise ring once owned by Jane Austen in the country.

The trade have strongly backed our comment last week calling into question the reliability of claims that 40% of antiques on the UK market are fakes or forgeries.

Police have launched an investigation into a suspected fraud centred on a Lincolnshire antiques business.

Recent publicity for the new TV series ‘Treasure Detectives’ prompted a number of articles claiming that 40% of all antiques on the UK market are fakes.

COMMENT: Damaging claims like this should be beyond question in their robustness, or they are just irresponsible, says Ivan Macquisten

Campaigners against changes in VAT that affect showground fairs met for the first time at a crisis summit in London. They now intend to form a trade federation to fight the changes.

The organiser of a string of burglaries that targeted various auction houses claimed a Klotz violin taken from a saleroom and then discovered at his home had actually been found in a skip.

Police made 20 arrests after a series of dawn raids linked to the investigation into the theft of Chinese artefacts and a rhino horn last year.

Whitehall officials overseeing CITES enforcement have removed guidelines from their website after conceding that they are confusing.

The Society of Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers held a seminar titled ‘CITES, What’s Going On?’ in London on September 2 attended by more than 40 members.

Break-ins to target jewellery dealers are not exactly uncommon these days, sadly, but there can’t be many involving home-made boats built to make a getaway.